( August 20, 2026, 03:00 GMT | Official Statement) -- MLex Summary: Lotte Chemical, Lotte Daesan Petrochem, HD Hyundai Oilbank and HD Hyundai Chemical have secured conditional approval from South Korea’s antitrust regulator for a restructuring deal that will combine their Daesan petrochemical operations under HD Hyundai Chemical, with Lotte Chemical and HD Hyundai Oilbank each holding 50 percent of the merged company and jointly controlling it. The Korea Fair Trade Commission said Thursday the transaction could substantially restrict competition in the domestic low-density polyethylene, or LDPE, and ethylene-vinyl acetate, or EVA, markets by reducing the number of suppliers from four to three and increasing risks of coordinated pricing and supply cuts. The regulator imposed five-year remedies, including limits on domestic price changes, supply obligations for existing LDPE and EVA grades, and restrictions on sharing competitively sensitive information and overlapping personnel.Statement is attached (in Korean)....
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